Exploring the world, 30 days at a time.

June 22, 2013June 22, 2013

A trip to Stone Mountain

Boy does it feel good to be back home. I missed my family so much while I was gone. I’m not sure why but this last trip seemed the hardest for me in terms of homesickness. Perhaps it was the fact we had no internet or phone services available on the rig. Whatever it was, I’m glad to be back. Since returning home from Brazil, I took the family to Stone Mountain State Park in North Carolina. It was a perfect day; not too hot and not too cool. We took advantage of the good weather and brought along bathing suits so we could take a dip in one of the creeks. My littlest was not at all fond of the cold water at first but upon seeing the others having such a good time, she braved all and went for it.

Always a ham for the camera, my twins found this nice tree trunk along the bank as a prop to sit on for their portrait. My shotgun is loaded and I have PLENTY of ammo.

After our swim in the creek, we took a walk around the base of Stone Mountain at a spot called Hutchinson’s Place. It’s an historic homestead that has been preserved by the state. The kids like this spot because it has an awesome tree for climbing and a big field to run around in.

My little Dude and his buddy “E-roar” (as he calls it).

My littlest one found a walk in the grass to be a perfect warm-up after her dip in the creek.

I wound up crawling around in the grass chasing a butterfly that was going from flower to flower. Glad we were the only people around as I’m sure I looked like a complete weirdo. But hey, I got my butterfly shot!

Here are a few more shots I came up with while walking around.

I think that about covers the day. I’ll be posting more photos while I’m home. Did I mention how happy I am to have my Nikon back?

Technical Details:

All photos were shot with a Nikon D600 with a Nikon 50mm f/1.4. I’m so sold on this lens as being the only thing I need that I’ve recently sold the rest of my lenses. For one of my lenses I got my oldest daughter her first camera. A lightly used Nikon D200 with a Nikon 50mm f/1.8. I’ll be teaching her photography and hopefully she’ll take a strong personal interest in it. Maybe even make a career of it. One can hope…

6 thoughts on “A trip to Stone Mountain”

As always, Tom- your photos are stunning- and love of family even better! Glad you’re home safe and sound… sounds like it was a tough trip this time. Understand… we depend so much on the internet anymore- Welcome home!

You really are blessed with such a beautiful family. That picture of the butterfly was simply incredible, but I also very much enjoy all of the others.

I have that same feeling with Brandon being over there with no way to contact me. He managed to get on someone’s computer long enough to shoot me a two sentence email explaining everything. That really helped, but the feeling of not having any way to connect is horrible.

I’m happy to hear you made it home safe. It’s such a pleasure following your site!!

I love these pictures of our kiddos! They are so precious, and you captured them perfectly! Wyatt and his E-Roar… that’s *awesome*. He’s going to love that picture when he’s a teenager. 😉 Our girls are all so beautiful– inside and out. Thank you for taking the time to capture these images, and for sharing them!